Thursday, May 17, 2012

Second Dam at Athens, Wisconsin



Above is a photo postcard of a group of people at the Second Dam at Athens, Wisconsin. There is no information on the back, so I don't know the date or what kind of group this is. There are many more women than men, and all seem to be fairly young. The man sitting at the center front may be some kind of leader. I also don't know whether the pile of logs is part of the dam, or if it is just a pile of logs.

Below is an enlarged detail giving a clearer view of the people in the photo.



Athens had several sawmills in the early 1900s. The Rietbrock Lumber Company sawmill was built on the banks of Black Creek in 1888. The book that was written for the Athens, Wisconsin Centennial 1890-1990 has a chapter on sawmills. There are photos of the sawmill and the logging operations in the area. There is also a photo of the Second Dam which was "upstream from the mill at the swimming hole site."




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14 comments:

  1. Funny little message on the postcard. I remember as a teenager we had fun taking photos on swingsets and jungle gyms. Could these young people just be having fun climbing on the logs?

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  2. I don't know about you but that looks kind of foolhardy to me! Great picture though, love all the ladies' hats!

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  3. How did they scurry up the log piles in those skirts? And holding onto their hats. Great photos.

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  4. Do you think they were all family and maybe workers of the logging business back then? It's a great picture anyway....knowing the truth or not! Great story, they had!

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  5. Wow! You managed to find photos with every single person in a hat! They are great photos too.

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  6. It would be interesting to know who these people are and what in the heck they're doing on that pile of logs all dressed up in their Sunday best. That man (leader) in front is very curious—has a look of authority about him.
    Nancy

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  7. That's a great place to pose. The ladies must have had a time getting up there, dressed as they were. A fun photo.

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  8. Posed, maybe but they all look comfortable on their perch and in their hats.

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  9. That looks like a pretty swimming hole. The top picture is great, but I would be afraid of one of those logs getting loose and smashing people.

    I love the name of the dam; short and sweet.

    Kathy M.

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  10. Those are really awesome hats. One would be in dire straits if the wind got up. Love the photo.
    QMM

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  11. Good idea to enlarge the photo of the young people on the logs. You can tell much more about them. I wouldn't have climbed on the logs myself - looks like an accident waiting to happen. My paternal grandfather had a logging business and drove a log truck. He always warned his family to stay clear of log trucks if we encountered them while driving due to the possibility of logs rolling off the truck onto the road.

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  12. What a great collection of hats in the first photo. I'm not so sure I would have climbed on the logs in a dress through, somehow I think I would be the one to cause them to all roll.

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  13. My mother's sister married into a family into that business, sawmills. But I don't know if there was such a dam. Rarely saw those folks and never really cared...
    My loss, perhaps...
    ;)~
    HUGZ

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  14. The photo makes me think back to movies about men aboard ship and how excited they'd get when a group of nurses would show up to tour the vessel. I'm guessing the sawmill workers were quite happy to help these ladies up onto the logs.

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